Alright so i've been working on this story for some time. Figured I'd start putting up chapters in a couple of forums to get feedback and criticism and, hell, just to see if lots of people like it. So here! The first chapter of the Kings!

Chapter One: Lunch Break “FUCK YOU!” I shouted, left hand coming up with my gun as I let loose blast after blast into the restaurant windows, the bullets punching dents in the metal exterior. “Fuckers! You ain’t nothing but a little bitch SPARKS!” It didn’t matter whether or not they could hear me, hell I could barely hear myself over the explosion of bullets and flames. I ducked my head back down, checking the ammo in the large magnum, pulling the bullets from my pocket. “Well I hope you’re happy.” I told him, eyes focused on my gun as I slid the hefty bullets into it. “What could have been a simple smash and tag now turned into a fucking shit storm. You always gotta try and make them come quietly, don’t you!?” I glanced at him, the same smirk on his face he always wore when he was trying to piss me off. “Come on Jake, you know you’d feel a bit bad if we didn’t at least try.” He told me, chuckling a bit. For those of you who are reading this, let me put things into perspective. My name is Jake Sky, and I’m 19 years old. I’m a protector and hero in a massive sprawling city called Aeons in the year 3027. Like seriously, it’s massive, the entire city takes up the west coast of North America. Me and my brother Travis ‘The Peacemaker’ are just two of many vigilantes that help out the police with the scum that infest this otherwise perfect place. Except, you know, we’re the best. Mankind is basically in its golden age right now, despite the crime. Magic and science are in unison with each other, we’re at the peak of technology, we’ve found a constant near infinite free energy (magic, its sweet), and we’re actually not trying to kill someone in some stupid war. But, as perfect as all this sounds, there’s still crime. Lots of it. Lots of super villains too. Which is where Travis and me come in. A massive fire ball went flying over our heads, smashing into a patrol car and setting it aflame. “We have to retreat!” One of the policemen shouted beside me, fear evident in his face. I rounded on him, grabbing the top of his bullet proof armor and making him look at me. “Like hell we are! I never run away from a fight! Now shut up and listen!” I pushed him hard back against the metal planter we were holed up against, another couple of police men ducked behind a patrol car. I turned back to Travis, his right arm having a solid crystal snake coiled around it tightly. It was the weirdest sight, especially when the damn thing blinked at me. “Alright listen up! Peacemaker here is gonna run around the side and flank them, I’m going to punch a hole through the other side! The rest of you, give my bro some cover!” I heard a collective number of shouts from the policeman, before Travis gave me a slow nod to show he was ready. “COVERING FIRE!” I roared and the policemen all stood up at once, the quiet coughs from their state-of-the-art assault rifles a very anti-climatic sound given the battle cry I had just screamed. Travis sprinted behind the line of cops, more of those same crystals forming over the rest of his body. I watched him run until I saw him disappear behind the side of the building. I quickly ducked back down, the policemen keeping up their steady firing. I holstered my gun, grabbing the slab of steel I called a buster blade. The sword was easily taller than me by a few feet (I’m a solid six ft) and about two and a half feet across, and I lifted it like a plastic bat. Again, let me just explain a few things. I’m not like normal people, neither are Travis and me or well most of the people that inhabit Aeons. At least not normal by the people of your time’s standards. Humans have naturally grown taller and more muscular. Humans aren’t the only types of sentient creatures either. There are elves, aliens, genetic hybrid humans (like people with wings or cat ears) and mutants, which are basically humans with super powers. Not as uncommon as you’d think. I knew I was no mutant, and neither was Travis. His people had crazy gifts with animals, their spirits and whatnot. And me? Well. I was something different all together. I breathed in very slowly, building my energy within. I vaguely heard the shouts of the policemen as the gun fire started back up from the gang who had holed up in the restaurant, their machine guns tearing apart the asphalt ground and the planter. “Bring.” I breathed out again, feeling the energy peak within, like a building pressure. “It.” I opened my eyes again, looking down at my arm. Blue lightning was coursing around my arm, and my rage spiked again. “OOON!!” I stood up and brought my hand around, bullets whizzing past my head. The lightning exploded from my hand like a pillar, thunder cracking throughout the air as the electricity left my hand. The blast tore apart nearly half of the restaurant, killing anyone on that side in an instant. I rushed forward, sprinting past the planters and straight for the hole I had created. I didn’t see the men in the windows so I assumed they were still cowering. A huge crystal eagle streaked from the side of the restaurant that Travis had entered earlier just as I entered the metal gash in the restaurant. I didn’t notice the rubble I had created or the state of the rest of the restaurant, too focused on finding the gang members and taking them out. No sooner had I entered the restaurant I was greeted with an explosion of heat and flames that sent me flying off my feet. I blacked out for a moment before my back hit against hard metal, falling onto the floor. “Ow.” I said simply, a snarl of anger escaping my lips a moment later. “Son. Of. A. BITCH!” I stood up, bringing my blade up like a shield as my left hand pulled out my magnum. I felt the heat of another fireball slam into the sword. I lowered it, letting off a blind round. There was a choked, bloody gurgle as the man crumpled, a good chunk of his shoulder gone. The two men that were left stared me down with angry eyes, and I could almost feel the heat of their glares. “Don’t bring that weak shit into my city!” I roared. In a blur of motion (literally, just a blur) he was in front of me, a long sword in his hand, a snarl coming from his throat as he brought it down. Now, if you didn’t catch in this already, I can take a beating. I literally took a fucking fireball to the face and all it did was piss me off and singe my hair and clothes. So when I say that I caught the man’s sword in my hand and it didn’t, you know, chop my hand off, it’s cause I’m built that way. I’m built like a tank. A very angry, lightning controlling, light emitting, giant ass sword wielding tank. I dropped my gun to the ground, catching the sword in my hand, grunting a bit as it just barely cut into my leather glove. “Asshole!” I shouted and brought my knee up, hard, into the man’s stomach. There was a loud crack as something broke inside of him and he doubled over. I grabbed him by his throat just as the other man began to shoot. Which was a real shame for the guy I was holding now. I brought the man in front of me using him as a meat shield as the bullets tore into his body. I tossed his useless body to the side when I heard the clicking of empty rounds, the gunner staring at me with wide eyes when he realized what he had done. He fumbled with a new clip as I took a few step towards him, raising my hand. A small orb of a clear, almost glass like substance appeared in the palm of my hand. “You’re gonna wanna drop that gun.” I told him as he finally pushed the magazine into the rifle. His gun shook as he took aim, ignoring my words. “No I mean seriously. Drop it.” He either was too scared to listen to me, or too stupid. Either way, he was going to get fucked over. I sighed, shaking my head a bit. “I warned ya.” Time seemed to slow down for me. He pulled the trigger, sending a hail storm of bullets my way. The orb went rocketing from my hands, flying over the hail, and a wall of light appeared in front of me. I smirked tugged at my lips as time resumed. The bullets punched into the wall of light, made out of the same glass like material as the orb. The orb smashed into the man’s face, the ball exploding in a burst of light and sending the man to the ground, rendering him unconscious and more than likely breaking some face bones. “Well I did warn ya.” I chuckled a little bit, letting out a sigh. I lowered my sword to the ground, finally taking in my surroundings of what used to be a nice establishment. Hard wood flooring. Dark wood counter top. Wood tables. Damn. Wood. This used to be a ritzy place. See, in this day and age wood was hard to come by, and everything was made out of some 100% recycled plastic, metal, or some other odd thing, like plasma or something. But getting lumber for buildings wasn’t easy because the forests were all chopped down or anything like that, there were just regulations and whatnot. Roughly three hundred some odd years ago, we nearly killed the Earth off by chopping down all the forests. We fixed it, but there are rules and a ridiculous amount of red tape to go through now in order to get wood for buildings and such. Yeah, don’t worry you few hippies who are reading this, we saved the rainforest and got smart, now a good portion of the earth is just forests and rainforests. You can all take a deep breath of relaxation and start eating meat again. I did a head count of the men I had taken out and the other bodies that I assumed Travis had taken out. Which was a problem seeing as he had more than me. “Damn it.” It was an ongoing bet between us, who could take out more guys in just about any situation. I didn’t mind spending the credits, hell it was that bet that had brought us to this restaurant in the first place. I just hated losing. My boots crunched on the broken glass as I made my way over to the man who was flinging the fireballs. I stepped on his chest, getting a loud grown of pain from him. I furrowed my brows as I looked at the tattoos crawling up the side of his neck, across his cheek and jaw. Those were the signature tattoos of the Igniter gang, a very powerful mob group that was slowly taking control of Aeons. The tattoos could vary in design, but were usually just large looming flames. From what I could see his was strictly reds, oranges, and yellows. The man was a captain, more than likely new at the position too, and the lowest order of captain by the coloring of the flames and spirals of the tattoos that no doubt covered the rest of his chest and arms. To describe the Igniters mob, they were a lot like the Al Capone mob that happened oh so long ago. Hell they even dressed the same way, all trenchcoats and fine suits. They were notorious for their fire abilities, and for blurring. Blurring was an ability that some people, mostly the mob members possessed, which was the ability to run at such speeds where they only appeared as blurs. Regardless, they were a very powerful mob, a sick infection that was rotting away at my city. They dealt in extortion, prostitution, robbery, drug dealing, smuggling, anything that was above petty crimes, they basically did. There were three different kinds of captains, each having to do with a different color of fire tattoos. Red was the lowest, blue was in the medium, and green and purple were the highest order. Rumor was it only the Don of the Igniters had those tattoos. The man probably didn’t know anything. Probably. But probably wasn’t a good enough reason for me not to take him into custody and for interrogation. I glanced up when I heard the policemen and Travis approaching, Peacemaker using the door like a sensible man while the cops picked through the hole I had created. “Have you checked the rest of the restaurant for the hostages?” The captain asked me, pulling off his helmet to look at me and the other bodies. I looked around at the other faces, a stupid ‘Uuuhh…’ coming from me. “Hostages. Right.” Travis sighed, rolling his eyes a bit as he brushed past me, making his way to the back. I stood up, clearing my throat a bit. “Right, Peacemaker is on that.” I adjusted my black jacket, brushing the soot off my metal spaulders. “Aw damn. This was my favorite shirt.” I grimaced as I straightened the tee, a big hole in the center where the fireball had hit. “Jake Sky, there are more pressing matters than your t-shirt at hand.” The captain said as he walked over to me, voice stern. Oh, sure. Once the bad guys were all dead and gone this guy was tough. I looked up at him, the elf easily seven feet tall. “Yeah well you say that now, but this was a limited edition designer t-shirt. I probably can’t find another one of these anywhere.” I shook my head a bit, crossing my arms. “Ok. What ‘pressing’ matters are at hand.” I quoted the word, annoyance in my voice. The elf was obviously irritated, his voice escalating in anger as he continued. “Sky these men are dead. You…tore apart this restaurant! Civilians were hurt! The hostages-“ “Are all fine.” My brother said as he walked out from the back of the restaurant, more than a dozen men and women appearing behind him, all visibly shaken by the event. “Ah! See! It’s all good, no worries.” I gave a cheery smile to the captain, reaching up to pat him on the shoulder. I liked the police. I did. I just found their ways of dealing with justice stupid and annoying. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, captain.” I reached down, grabbing a fistful of the captain’s suit and lifting him easily off the ground. “I have a man to interrogate.” I pushed past the elf, sliding my buster sword into its sheath on my back, the mechanical sheath automatically clicking around the blade. “You can’t just take this man into custody!” The elf shouted after me, grabbing my shoulder. I whirled on him, the easiness that had been in my voice gone as I stared him down. “Watch me.” I let the words hang in the air for a moment before I continued on my merry way, dragging the man after me and picking my gun off the ground and holstering it at my hip. Peacemaker quickly joined me, otherwise saying nothing as we left what was left of the building. I looked around as more hover patrols formed a perimeter, blocking the civilians who had begun to gather around the police line as curious people tended to do with crime scenes. Healers stood over the couple that had been clipped by the gang. “Hey! It’s the King of Aeons and Peacemaker!” One of them shouted, a girl who, admittedly was very attractive and had bright red eyes and dark ram horns curling around her head. Other people quickly joined in the cheering as we made our way towards Travis’s own hovercar, a very fashionable Luxicon model. “Hey there.” I gave them my signature two fingered wave when I felt a sudden explosion of heat and a shriek from the crowd. In a heartbeat I created a wall of light before the crowd, the fireball that had come from the captain exploding against it. I looked down at him, a defiant smirk on his face that made my blood boil. I let go of this suit, the man struggling to crawl away as I saw the anger in his eyes. I brought the heel of my foot down in a powerful ax kick that smashed his shin almost in half. He shouted loudly in pain, holding his shin in his hands, blood seeping from where I had just dropped my foot. I picked him up by his neck, throwing him hard into the trunk. “Fuck you!” He spat out before my fist connected with his gut, making the air in his lungs came out, doubling over in pain. There was a thud as I shut the trunk hard, probably from the man’s head. Oops. The wall of light I had created in front of the crowd disappeared, the people shouting loudly in praise. “Alright, let’s get going.” I said as I opened the back door of the car. I pulled the blade from my back, glancing back over at the crowd of cheering girls and fans. There was a loud thunk and screech of metal as the blade cut through a bit of the car. “Oh shit!” I shouted, dropping it and making the car sink a bit in the back. “Oh fuck, dude, I am so sorry. Shit!” Travis was giving me the most dead evil glare he could manage from the driver’s seat, completely white eyes unnerving. From someone who didn’t do much talking, and usually spoke through their eyes, it was very hard to not be shaken by the gaze. “Don’t fucking look at me like that! Freaks me out.” I slid into the passenger’s seat, closing the door as it pulled itself off the ground. The top folded itself down, the cool air feeling very relaxing as we joined the other lines of cars that traveled throughout Aeons. I sighed, running a hand through my long black hair. You wouldn’t know it by glancing at the two of us but me and Travis were brothers. I stood just above 6 ft, pretty muscular, white with a very nice tan if I do say so myself, along with pitch black hair that hung past my shoulders like a lion’s mane, along with bright blue eyes. Then there was Travis, who stood just below 6 ft, browns dreads tied into a ponytail behind his head, a dyed white soul patch on his chin, with dark brown skin. But we were brothers, as close as two dudes could be who weren’t related by blood. “Something up?” He asked me after the long silence as we began our trip. I sighed again, shaking my head a bit as I looked out into the beautiful city. The sun was slowly beginning to set, the shining sun glinting off the ocean and sky scrapers like so many diamonds. Travis could always read me like a book. “I just…I just dunno man. These Igniters guys are something else. Organized. Powerful. And their fucking leader…we haven’t found shit beside’s two names! His gang names! Don of Flames…Speed Demon…” I shook my head again, frustrated. “We’re trying. We’re doing very well. We’ve helped a lot of good people.” He told me slowly, ducking out of the line of hover cars and slowly moving towards the streets. “We just need some help getting this guy-“ “A fucking King and Peacemaker shouldn’t need help with anything damn it!!” I shouted loudly, hitting my hand against the dashboard. Travis stayed silent, letting my aggression out. “I mean fuck dude!! We’re heroes! The people, the people, of Aeons gave me that name! Gave you that name! For a reason too! Because we save people and kick ass and kill those who deserve it!” I slammed hand against the dashboard again, leaving a dent in the metal. “Ugh. Fuck. Sorry. I just need to get on my arrowboard again. Just go a whole day of surfing through the wind.” I sighed again. An arrowboard, to put it in the simplest terms possible, is a hoverboard that can surf on the wind and runs on water and wind. To most people it’s an extreme sport, a hobby. To me, it was a part of my life. I could never compare the feeling I got when I was on my board. It was like…like fishing on a loud day, or uh…going to church with your friends…fuck it. It was like being whole. That’s the only way I can describe while being on my arrowboard. “It’s alright.” He said calmly, but I knew full well I’d be paying to have it fixed. Travis was the type of man who wasted breath on words. He knew me so well he usually didn’t have to. He always kept his emotions under control, while I let them go unchecked. If you hadn’t noticed, I had a very nasty temper. I sighed again, resting my arms on the door, resting my chin on them and looking downward as the streets passed below us, the people going on and on about their daily lives. I almost envied them. They had no worries about the crimes and the gangs and the damn killers out there. Well, I almost did anyways. I knew they that worried about the crimes and whatnot, but they also couldn’t defend themselves, and they had other petty things to deal with. “I know you just don’t like asking for help man. But we can’t save everyone. It’s all good. Lower levels, towards the Crowin District?” He asked me, already knowing my answer as we lowered into one of the many ports leading into the Lower City. Aeons was built on three simple levels, four if you count the small generator levels. The upper levels were the very top of Aeons, where most businesses were held in the huge sky scrapers along with the lines of cars that criss-crossed up and down and all across the air. The second level was street level, where most of the houses of middle class to upper-middle class families lived. Then there was the third level, where we were going now. It was where most crimes went unnoticed and the lower class people lived. The slums of Aeons if you will. Pipes and shoddy apartments filled the rather large area that was just as large as the upper city, but much more leaky and covered in mud and rust. Which was great! For us. Why? Because it meant I could beat the living shit him and not have to worry about the men in black armor coming down hard on us. That wasn’t so great for the man in the trunk.

Last edited by Jake Sky on Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:54 pm; edited 1 time in total